The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-05-13
yorke;ovn schoo, Troub,e.

Having occasion to visit Yorktown yes
terday afternoon we made some inquiry as
to the nature of the difficulty existing there
at present over the admission of colored
children to the same school as the whites.
1t appears that up to this spring the col
ored residents of that school district (Aior-
gan district, No. 3d. have been provided
with n separate school house and a teacher
of their own color, which arrangement has
been at their own request and has hereto
fore worked satisfactorily all around. There
are about sixty-two colored children of
school age in the district aud seventy-two
whites. Within a very few years back the
district has built a new and comfortable
school house for the colored children and
they are now provided with q capable and
efficient teacher by the name of Theodore
II. Lawrence, from New York, who, judg-
ing by an article over his signature in the
last issue of the South Jrseymdn, is a man
Of no ordinary attainments. The teacher
at the white school is Miss Kate G. Rigan,
who is highly spoken of as a capable in
~structor. At the last election for a trustee
held this spring the colored population of
the district put up a candidate, one of their
own race, Charles Sullivan, a man of in
telligence and influence among them. His
competitor was a white citizen, George
Watson, son-in-law of John S. Elwell, a
leading and ~well-known citizen. Watson
was successful by a small majority, which
fact is supposed to have piqued the colored
people and caused the ensuing racket. A
short time after the election, Henry Hard
ing and Moses Hanly, colored, appeared
at the school house Of the whites with q
number of colorcd children, for whom they
demanded seats in the white school. To
a.. Na,,1c Al +,,,etno- IL 80 .ln~-..x
demurred, and after some parley the col
oreG children were sent back to their own
school. John Tillman, the father Of one
of the children who were refused admis-
sion. then by his counsel. Richard NJ.
Ware, of Woodbury., instituted a civil suit
in the Salem Circuit Court against the
three trustees, George Watson, Charles
W. Coles and Henry Vanmeter, for their
refusal, laying his damage at S., 900. The
writ was duly served, returnable May 10th,
and the case will probably not be ready for
trial before the October term of Che
court. So matters stand at present.
Meanwhile an effort is making, with what
success is not yet apparent, to divide the
district, so as 10 throw the large majority
of the colored population into a district by
themselves, with their present school house
at their disposal. Application has been
made TO the State school authorities for a
division, and they have put the matter I'M
der advisement. The application is sup
ported by the white population, although
q few colored men signed the petition at
first, but they began to suspect something
wrong, and no moro signatures could be
obtained among them. As one of their
leaders expressed it, sit didn't look right
to put the thing through without holding
a meeting on it," What the result of the
complications or solution of the difficulty
may be, no one, as yet, is prepared to
hazard a guess. A leading eolored man
of the neighborhood gave us the eolored
peoples version of the trouble. He says
that the colored people have no desire for
a mixed school, but that they are not given
a fair show by the Trustees in the matter
Of fuel, repairs to the school house, and in
other particulars essential to the comfort
of the scholars, the answers they received
to their complaints being sit is your own
school house; look after it yourselves"
Not deeming this fairtrcatmentthey sought
to remedy matters by electing a trustee
who would look after their interests some
what, and, failing in this, TO send their
children to a school house where their
comfort would be looked after equally with
the white children. We don't pretend to
say which side has the right of the contro-
versy, but give both sides as nearly as we
can get at them, n our readers can take
their choice.